In the recent past, interest in recycling of household waste materials has increased steadily. The types of materials most often recycled include paper, glass, aluminum and plastic. Recycling aids conservation by reusing previously manufactured goods to supply materials needed for the manufacture of new goods, thus avoiding the unnecessary expenditure of limited natural resources and the cost of locating and processing such resources. Recycling also protects the environment by minimizing the amount of waste disposed of through land fills, incineration and other similar means.
Articles that are recycled must be grouped according to the type of material from which each is constructed. This step is required to allow processing of articles manufactured from a similar material, utilizing a common, efficient process. Also, the presence of dissimilar materials in the recycling process essentially contaminates the recycled material. As a result, dissimilar material is usually discarded as waste prior to or during the recycling process.
Businesses and communities involved in recycling household waste now frequently require separation of recyclable articles into common groups, such as glass, paper, aluminum, and the like, before being accepted. As an example, some communities provide separate receptacles for receiving articles manufactured from each type of material, such as one receptacle for glass, one for aluminum, and so on.
An impediment to the recycling process is the commonly used household trash receptacle. Such receptacles generally provide only a single container into which all glass, paper, aluminum and waste of other materials is collected. The result is undesirable mixing of various types of materials, requiring the offensive, and time-consuming task of sorting such waste prior to delivery for recycling. Accordingly, there is a need for a waste receptacle capable of maintaining separation between discarded articles of various types, while allowing separate removal of each type of material for recycling.
The present invention provides a solution to the aforementioned shortcomings of available receptacles. The invention is a receptacle having two or more removable bins supported on a base. Each bin can be used to hold discarded articles of a certain material, for example, one for glass, and one for paper. The base of the receptacle is supported on casters, a bearing assembly and/or other mechanisms allowing rotation of the receptacle to position the bins for easy access by the user. Articles are thus sorted as they are discarded, by placement of each article in the appropriate bin, based on the type of material from which the articles are constructed.
It will be appreciated that such a receptacle may include three, four, or as many bins as is desireable, depending upon the variety of materials sought to be recycled.